Feedback

What's your question?

By: Asked

Syntheyes Vs. PF MatchIT

I just gave PF MatchIT a try, and coming from a compositing background, I REALLY like the node based workflow that it offers. When I worked at Frantic Films (Prime Focus) they used Syntheyes pretty heavily, and I tried to pick up a few things here and there, but I just found the app a pain in the ass to use. The workflow wasn't totally clear, and the UI is just god awful.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with both of these apps, and can give me some guidance where to put my time and money.

Thanks!

Add comment viewed 825 times Latest activity 11 months ago

NN comments
julik
-

I have some experience with both and Syntheyes consistently comes out better in terms of the camera solves it computes. Honestly speaking, even though the UI is nicer in PFMatchit I actually find BOTH UIs awful – so for me it’s down to what computes faster and more accurately, and this is Syntheyes.

or Cancel

3 answers

  • 1

franssu_27 [ Editor ]

The fact that SynthEyes licenses cannot float makes it difficult for use in any decent-sized studio. At least Pixel Farm gives the option to have a license server for all its software, making it less of a nightmare for IT and software management.

NN comments
franssu_27
-

I’m not a tracking expert, but our CG supervisor evaluated PFMatchIt for one week and liked it better than SynthEyes.

or Cancel
  • 0

jarrod linton_85 [ Editor ]

PFmatchit has a log flie which works in the background meaning that you don't need to save your work. This becomes a problem when someone open has opened your file while you are working on it and with out knowing it you are writing over top of each other. You can't save your versions unless you duplicate the whole node tree and move it to the side. It's seemly impossible to archive out a project because there isn't file associate with outside of the application.

I used PFmatchit for 4 months and thought the idea of the node based environment was really great. I liked the implementation of witness cameras and hints. But we found that it just wasn't a good tracker. I found that Nuke and Boujou would track the shot first time, but spend a lot more time in PFmatchit and it not track.

This will probably be a really good application at some point and the thinking is really good. But at the end of the day I just want the camera exported and PFmatchit didn't hold up in production.

or Cancel
  • 0

freds_62

We have found that PFMatchit actually has a very good tracker that our guys prefer to those over Boujou and Matchmover. The camera solver though is not as good as that of Matchmover, for example.

I have only tested Syntheyes briefly so can't comment on that. License thing mentioned would be a problem for us. Does it run on Linux 64bit?

cheers fred

or Cancel